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PRINCIPLES OF JAINISM
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back of tender regard for all forms of life which characterizes the religious life of a Jain who retreats in fear of causing harm. The Jain motto of life is ascetic or stoic. The path to happiness and progress lies through self-denial, selfabnegation and self-mortification. All the rules of conduct and religious practices are therefore designed to that very end. The chain of reasoning followed in Jainism to establish the universal religion of non-harming is generally missed. Here an attempt has been made to set it out as clearly as possible and to compare it with that in Buddhism as far as we have thought it necessary.
Ahimsā or non-harming is the first principle of higher life which Mahāvīra inculcated to his disciples and followers. Its visible effect was sought to be shown how even such brute creation as the beasts and birds, reptiles and fishes, happily responded to the non-harming and compassionate attitude of men,
The doctrine of karma which Mahāvīra taught, went to make men conscious of their responsibility for all their acts, mental, vocal or bodily. Kurma may be worked off by austerity, service rendered to ascetics or to the poor, the helpless and the suffering by giving them food, water, shelter or clothing. A man's action becomes an obstacle to the progress of soul, if greatly influenced by such Kaşayıs as anger, pride, deceit or greed. Karma may be divided according to its nature, duration, essence and content. It is intimately bound up with the soul. There are eight kinds of karma. The first kind hides knowledge from us (jñāņāvaraniya), the second kind prevents us from beholding the true faith (darsunāvaranīya), the third kind causes us to experience either the sweetness of happiness or the bitterness of misery (vedaniya), the fourth kind bemuses all the human faculties (mohanīya), the fifth kind determines the length of time which a jīva must spend in the form with which his karma has endowed him (āyu), the sixth karma (nāma) decides which of the four states or conditions shall be our particular gati (destiny), the seventh karma is gotra karma which determines a man's life, his occupation, the locality in which he may live, his marriage, his religious observances and even his food.1 The last and the eighth kind is the antarāya karma which always stands as an obstacle. It prevents a person from entering the path leading to eternal bliss. The karmic matter keeps the soul confined to the
1 S. Stevenson, The Heart of Jainism, p. 182. 2 Uttarā, XXXIII, 1-3.
